The News Line: EditorialWednesday, 24 May 2017A socialist government and a socialist foreign policy needed to defeat terrorism!NEWS LINE sends its condolences to the families and friends of the 22 people, including children, who were killed and the 59 who were injured in Monday evening’s suicide attack at the Manchester Arena, for which Islamic State has now claimed responsibility.

The Workers Revolutionary Party cancelled its election campaign yesterday for the day out of respect for the dead and the injured and their families. Likewise, out of the same sense of respect we will be resuming our campaign today, since the hard won right of working people to elect the government of their choice is not conditional on the approval of terrorists.

In fact, the terrorist blew himself up at a time when the Labour Party was winning back the support that it lost in recent years due to the pro-boss policies and the imperialist wars of the Blair-Brown governments that lost Scotland for Labour.

The latest polls show that in Wales there has been a 16-point shift to Labour and that the party has a 10-point lead over the Tories! Labour is now on 44% with the Tories trailing on 34%. Also on the last day of registering to vote, 622,000 people rushed to register. Most of these were young people, largely Labour voters won by the pledge to abolish tuition fees for all.

The election and its campaign must proceed regardless of the terrorists, because defeating terrorism is, in the main, a political task. In 2003 the UK and the US invaded Iraq, a campaign that was based on lies, and killed over 130,000 Iraqis in the campaign. The imperialists dismissed the Iraqi army and occupied the country laying the basis for the emergence of the ISIS terrorist group that took over Northern Iraq.

Not satisfied with this arrogant imperialist colonialism the UK-US axis assisted by France then attacked Libya in 2011, organising the murder of Gadaffi and destroying the most advanced and modern country in Africa, handing it over to terrorists and gangs whose business is to export refugees for profit.

The most advanced country in Africa was ruined, this time by Cameron and Sarkozy. Flushed with this victory the duo thought that they would do the same to Syria and immediately enlisted the Saudis and Qataris to finance and organise an Islamic uprising in Syria that has cost over 400,000 lives and seen millions more refugees try to cross the Med.

Cameron, Sarkozy and their successors have been defeated in Syria, but have succeeded in building up the Al Nusra Front and ISIS, with several thousand English jihadists in its service allowed to proceed to Syria by the UK government.

This policy has wreaked death, destruction and chaos in the Middle East and has brought a backlash on the streets of Paris, Berlin, Brussels, London and now Manchester, as the chickens come home to roost.

With Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia signing up to sell $130bn in armaments for a Saudi war against Iran, and the UK building aircraft carriers for operations east of Suez, the disaster has just begun. How many Yemenis, their homes and hospitals bombed by US and UK planes, will seek revenge with suicide attacks on US and UK targets.

This is why the UK election must proceed, terrorism or no terrorism. This country needs a socialist government that will recognise the state of Palestine, that will stop the arms sales to Saudi Arabia and will withdraw all of UK forces from east of Suez, so that the Arab people can decide who is to rule them, and regime change by the West is terminated. This is the road to peace, and the road to beating terrorism, both of the imperialist and Islamist varieties.

The WRP calls for the election campaign to be resumed immediately, so that the UK workers can decide on their government, and that a beginning can be made to organise a workers government that will carry out socialist policies at home and abroad.

This is why we urge workers to vote Labour to get rid of the Tories, but to vote WRP in the five areas where we are standing to do battle for a workers government that will carry out socialist policies both at home and abroad. This is the way to defeat imperialism and terrorism.